Extra Life: Andrew

I wrote a few weeks ago about some posts we’d be writing that explain why we got involved with Extra Life. It’s my turn to post.

A few years ago, my sister called me and told me that she had some news. My niece had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I was in shock, because we hadn’t known that there was any sort of problem, and to be honest, neither did my sister.

I felt pretty hopeless as we heard about her treatments and surgeries. I felt like I couldn’t do a thing to help. Then I found out about Extra Life.

Simply put, Extra Life is a gaming marathon that was founded to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. I found out about it through a friend who sets up our event every year. When I was doing more research, I found out the very hospital system my niece was treated at was one of the hospitals that benefits from Extra Life donations, and so, I signed up to raise money. This is my 5th year participating!

Many people play video games and stream for 24 hours straight, but we play board games. It’s always fun to see all the different types of games people play. There are the new, hot games, classic favorites, usually a game of DnD going on as well as many others. The few people that make up my core group of gaming have made it a sort of tradition to learn a medium to heavy weight game at 2 or 3 in the morning. We usually mess up a ton of rules and make many, many mistakes, but it’s always fun and sort of re-energizes us to make it until morning.

We also do a raffle. Some people donate games to a grab bag table, while others (and local businesses) donate to a “Big Prize” table. We do hourly drawings where you get to pick up any of the grab bag games of your choice, and then the larger games are spread out through the day. I happened to win a copy of Race for the Galaxy from the grab bag table, as well as a nice copy of Santorini from the Big Prize table last year.

All in all, Extra Life is a great time full of games and friends, but we do also to talk a little bit about why we are there for 24 hours. If you are interested in finding out more about Extra Life, visit their website at https://www.extra-life.org/. If you feel so inclined, you can find my personal donation page here.